Smirnoff Year of the Brunch: Easter Brunch (1969)

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by yinzerella

My sole new year resolution this year was to post once a week–but I’ve failed. I missed a week in February and this is the first post of April.

I am so disappointed in me.

But, oh well. I’m gonna try to get back on the wagon.

FUN FACT! According to the Smirnoff advertising folk, 1969 shall be forever known as THE YEAR OF THE BRUNCH!

It’s true!

I learned this while writing about this Smirnoff Football Brunch advertisement:

It featured a little advertising booklet called The Smirnoff Football Brunch (and seven other great brunch ideas).

I had to know the SEVEN OTHER GREAT BRUNCH IDEAS!

So I took to the internet and found something even better.

All seven brunch ideas are in there.

With so many brunch ideas at the ready I decided to make one for Easter (actually Palm Sunday).

Warm things up with this greet-the-family, welcome-the-sun, look-for-a-robin Brunch-in. Spring has sprung, so hop to it!

I decided to combine the brunch above with the Happy Easter Brunch from The Smirnoff Brunch Book (1971).

 

The final menu:

Hot Cross Buns
Bloody Marys/Screwdrivers/Mimosas
Scrambled eggs with assorted toppings: caviar, bacon, cheese, chives, sour cream
Bagels with smoked salmon, capers, shallots, cream cheese and avocado
Asparagus vinaigrette
Smirnoff Easter Eggs
Coeur a la Creme with Berries

I started cooking the night before and made the hot cross buns, asparagus vinaigrette, Coeur a la Creme (which literally means heart of cheese), and the Smirnoff Easter Eggs a.k.a. JELL-O SHOTS

 

I don’t want to talk about the hot cross buns.

Here’s the cheese heart before I put it in the fridge overnight:

Mr. Sauce, Esq. was responsible for the asparagus.

Now, the Smirnoff Easter Eggs.

Smirnoff Easter Eggs Prepare 2 pkgs. fruit flavored gelatin with 2 cups boiling water and ½ cup Smirnoff. Cool. Punch small hole in each end of fresh egg, blow contents into bowl. (Use for omelets). Rinse shells, blow water out. Seal one hole with candle wax; stand shells in carton. Fill with gelatin mixture, refrigerate to set. Before serving, crack shells and peel off. Makes about 8 eggs—for adults only!

This recipe is at once both simple and complicated.
Simple in that those are some pretty straightforward instructions. Complicated as in: how the hell does someone do that?
It just takes twelve eggs (you’ll end up losing a few), a trussing needle, a tiny funnel, a straw, and a lot of blowing.
Punch holes in the egg, blow out the egg out of the shell, fill the egg with water, blow the water out of the egg, and dry.
With the help of a tiny funnel, I was able to get the Jell-O into the shells.
This was A LOT.
But in the end, they actually ended up working!
It was rather fun taking what looks to be a hard boiled egg and peeling it to reveal a boozy, jiggly jewel.
Here’s the finished brunch:
The asparagus vinaigrette was a big hit and my guests asked for the recipe!
We expanded our menu to include a lox platter with bagels and cream cheese.
I ended up making scrambled eggs instead of omelets, but the toppings were the same.
The Coeur a la Creme was a huge hit. I highly recommend it.
It really was a fabulous brunch!

I might as well bring out the hot cross buns.

They were hard enough that they would cause serious injury if you threw one at someone’s head.

When I made the icing, the vanilla extract made it a disgusting shade of ecru. So I thought I’d fix it with food coloring.

That’s why they look like they’ve been drizzled with children’s amoxicillin.

We should just forget that this happened and remember my Easter Braid from two years ago.

 

 

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yinzerella

6 thoughts on “Smirnoff Year of the Brunch: Easter Brunch (1969)”

  3. Yinz makes quite the gorgeous brunch! Your flowers are beautiful (two of my favorites!) and everything looks delicious. That Easter braid can make up for Pepto-buns any day of the week and twice on a Sunday. I’m most impressed that the Smirnoff Easter Eggs worked out — and that Cher and Glenn Campbell had brunch with Barbara Stanwyck.

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